My name is Dr. JoEllen Pederson and I teach a research methods course at Longwood University. In this course I use project based learning and community involvement while working with anther course to create a research project for students.
For the past four years we have worked to improve family involvement in the Farmville area. In the first two years of this project students enrolled in SOCL 345 – Social Research and Program Evlauation conducted needs assessment research to gather information about families. Based on the quantitative and qualitative data gathered, students taking the partner class developed “Family Fun Time Activities” to encourage family involvement with young children. Students in SOCL 345 now create a instrument to evaluate the effectiveness of those programs every fall.